Guardiola sees balance against Real as a positive for City | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola will challenge Real Madrid once again in a Champions League knockout stage this Wednesday. Since arriving at Manchester City, the Spanish coach has faced the club in five knockout ties (ten games), in addition to this season’s league phase match. In these encounters, Pep has recorded five wins, three draws, and three losses.

Despite having more wins, in the five knockout occasions, Real took the advantage and qualified in three of them. City only managed to advance in two meetings. It’s worth remembering that, just before Pep’s arrival at City in 2016, the English club faced Real in the Champions League semifinals. On that occasion, the Spanish club also advanced.

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Guardiola’s respect for the Madrid rival

Pep gave an interview to TNT Sports UK and spoke about the balance in clashes against Real Madrid.

“The excitement is in the fact that we’ve improved. I think in the early years we didn’t realize we could do this, against the history and prestige of Madrid. I’ve always said that in this competition we’ve been playing for 14 years, these guys have 15 Champions Leagues. They have more Champions League titles than the number of years we’ve played in the competition.”

Manchester City played its first Champions League in the 2011/12 season. The current edition is the club’s 14th in its history.

“You have to process that and, at first, I don’t think we felt it. We grew and tried to become aware that we were capable. That’s the greatest satisfaction I have, the fact that we’ve instilled that in the club,” said Guardiola.

The coach also highlighted the feeling of visiting Real’s home. “I know I’m not incredibly loved in this place, but I like coming to the Bernabéu. People here in Madrid don’t believe that I have respect, a lot of respect, for this institution, which has done many, many good things for world football.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.